THE FRIDAY SIX: Q&As with Your Favorite Broadway Stars- SPRING AWAKENING's Amelia Hensley

By: Dec. 25, 2015
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Welcome to THE FRIDAY SIX: Q&As with your favorite Broadway stars. Want to know what hooked them to a career in the theater? Their dream roles? Their Broadway crushes? Read on!

In this week's edition, we caught up with Amelia Hensley, who stars as 'Thea' in Spring Awakening, currently playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.


What is the first Broadway show you ever saw?

I had never seen a Broadway show until I moved here for Spring Awakening. Fun Home was my first one!

What is your most unique pre-show ritual?

I am always the first person in the cast to get their hair done, because I have to add clip-on extensions to make it longer; I always watch Scandal while they do my hair! I'm trying to catch up, and I'm at Season 4 right now. After that, the cast gets together to play "Ninja" on the stage before we put our costumes on.

What is your most memorable "the show must go on" moment?

I haven't experienced a mess up yet! But there is one incident that happened during the Inner-City Arts production in Los Angeles. During the song "Those You've Known" {spoiler alert!), the ensemble becomes a metaphorical "graveyard" by sitting in chairs staggered across the stage facing the back wall; we're seated to the right of a bed with a trunk on top of it. Inside the trunk, Daniel Durant is waiting to pop out for the start of the song. He's deaf, so he has a light inside of the trunk to let him know when it is time to come out. Well, one night we waited for Daniel to come out and he didn't. I began to notice something was off. I'm deaf, so I have to count out the beats to make sure I'm matching the counts of the music. (I'm not great at counting them... Spencer will probably kill me for saying that!) Anyway, I decided to go ahead and get out of my chair and walk up to the trunk and open it. I realized the light wasn't on to cue Daniel to come out. After the show was over we figured out that the light was broken. TJ, our stage manager, said that I had saved the show and he didn't understand how I knew Daniel was supposed to come out. He jokingly asked me if I was sure I was deaf!

What is the one role you want to play before you die?

This is probably silly for me to say, but I always wanted to be Elle in Legally Blonde.

Who is your Broadway crush?

Definitely Kelli O'Hara, she is so gorgeous! I hope I get the chance to see her in The King and I. I wish they would provide captions or an ASL interpreter on a Wednesday when I have a dark day.

Where can people follow you online?

I'm at @ameliahensley12 on Twitter and @rojoxmia on Instagram. I also have a Facebook fan page as well at https://www.facebook.com/amelia.hensley/



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